Napoleon "The Little."

A poem by Victor Marie Hugo

("Ah! tu finiras bien par hurler!")

[Bk. III. ii., Jersey, August, 1852.]


How well I knew this stealthy wolf would howl,
When in the eagle talons ta'en in air!
Aglow, I snatched thee from thy prey - thou fowl -
I held thee, abject conqueror, just where
All see the stigma of a fitting name
As deeply red as deeply black thy shame!
And though thy matchless impudence may frame
Some mask of seeming courage - spite thy sneer,
And thou assurest sloth and skunk: "It does not smart!"
Thou feel'st it burning, in and in, - and fear
None will forget it till shall fall the deadly dart!